


Royalty Can Suck

by orphan_account



Category: Shingeki no Kyojin | Attack on Titan
Genre: Additional tags will be added, Forbidden Love, M/M, Rating May Change, Royalty AU, peasant/thief levi, prince erwin
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2015-04-19
Updated: 2015-04-19
Packaged: 2018-03-24 20:26:41
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,587
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/3783295
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/orphan_account/pseuds/orphan_account
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Erwin is the prince of his kingdom who comes across Levi, who is a low peasant that commits thievery. Needless to say, Erwin falls in love, eventually Levi does too. Though because of different circumstances regarding Erwin's high ranking status and how much of a criminal Levi is, they can't really be together. But that doesn't stop them.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Royalty Can Suck

**Author's Note:**

> after months of writing various things, i finally finish one. aaaaand it's going to be multichaptered. im so sorry. 
> 
> but yea, i saw a similar prompt like this on tumblr and i was just like "holy shit, i must write this." 
> 
> sorry for any mistakes. there are probably quite a few, and if theyre horribly bad, please tell me and i'll fix them. and i'll probably also change the fic title later.
> 
> also just to warn, there's a brief moment of child abuse in this.

When he first sees him, he’s already infatuated. Though the boy looks deathly thin, bruises on his knees and arms, and grime covering his body and tattered clothes, his inky onyx locks framing his pale face with his bright grey eyes makes him look strikingly beautiful. He sits on the ground next to some trash cradling a loaf of bread protectively as if that’s his only meal for that week. It probably is.

Erwin continues to stare in awe at him until his father lightly smacks the side of his head.

“Erwin,” he starts to scold. “Don’t stare at those. It’s rude.”

By ‘those’ he means the peasants that live here within the walls. Unlike the peasants that work in the villages outside the protection of the walls they can’t afford to live in, these kind are scavengers. They tend to steal money and food of the middle-class as well as high-class. Most are usually killed or shot for thievery, and the ones that do go uncaught escape to the underground. No one even tries to follow them down there. Disease and death plagues the air, rats and bones litter the ground…

Erwin’s father lightly pats his back. “Alright, be ready to cover your nose when we get up here. The stench is nasty,” he tells him.

They soon reach the entrance to the underground which basically looks like a cave in the ground. Erwin does as what his father said to do and plugs his nose. He peers down and he’s able to make out stairs and glimpses of lighting down there. His father tugs on his small hand lightly as if to tell him to get a move on.

After their trip to the blacksmith and back home, Erwin still has that boy on his mind.

He sees him again a few weeks later.

It’s daytime and Erwin is outside playing with his close friends, Mike and Nile, in the open field area. The ball they’re playing with is accidentally thrown too far and lands behind some bushes.

“I’ll get it!” Erwin calls out, hurrying over as fast as his awkwardly stocky legs can take him. He kneels down and reaches in through the leaves and branches to grab the ball. But instead of feeling that soft rubber, he’s met with a hand, small and boney. He retracts his hand strikingly fast with a startled yelp and he hears a small, frightful whimper on the other side of the bushes.

“Erwin? Are you alright?” he hears Nile ask.

The blond boy looks back, giving him him a smile and nods before thrusting his head through the bushes. His mother would probably yell at him for doing this as it’s messing up his golden, neatly combed hair, but he doesn’t really care. Suddenly, he’s met with a ball in his face.

He wiggles an arm through the bush to grab the ball. “Thank yo-” he starts say but lightly gasps. “It’s you!”

It was the peasant boy he’s seen before! His eyes go wide in terror and he looks like he’s about to scamper away.

“Wait,” Erwin says, grabbing his thin arm in a light hold. “Don’t go! Do you want to play with us?”

The boy hesitates as he peeks through the bushes to see two bigger looking boys with one beginning to look impatient.

“Erwin! Come on! Supper is about to start soon and I want to play some more,” Nile huffs, a frown on his tan face.

Erwin ignores him in favor to talk to this boy some more. “What is your name?” he asks. “I’m Erwin.”

“Um..” the boy begins to speak, his voice soft and quiet. “Levi.”

The blond’s eyes brighten as a smile forms on his face. “Levi,” he repeats. “Well, Levi, do you want to play with us?”

Levi blinks up at him before looking back at the ground and nodding slightly. He hears Erwin hum happily and he’s pulling himself out of the bushes. Right after that, Levi is following him out into the open. Suddenly, he feels very vulnerable without the protection of something hiding him.

Erwin busies himself pulling the twigs and leaves out of the strands of his hair as he walks back over to his friends before noticing that Levi isn’t following him. “Are you coming?” he asks the other boy.

Levi nods before hurrying over and stopping behind Erwin. The stares of the other two boys are beginning to make him feel nervous.

“Erwin? What’s that?” Nile asks, a sneer on his face as he stares at the dirty looking boy in torn clothes. “He’s weird looking. I don’t want him playing with us.”

Before Erwin could reply, Mike leans over and suddenly sniffs the small boy. He jerks away suddenly, his nose scrunched in disgust. “He doesn’t smell too good. He smells gross!”

“Haha! Yeah! And look, he doesn’t have shoes. Can’t your parents get you some? And some better clothes?”

“You should also start taking baths.”

Levi’s bottom lip quivers and his eyes start to water from those nasty comments. When Erwin steps in front of him, he latches on to his clothes for comfort. “Don’t be mean!” the blond yells at them both in anger. His massive brows furrow almost comically, but the anger on his usually soft face isn’t funny at all.

Unable to help himself, the small boy starts bawling as he burrows his face in the blond boy’s clean, crisp shirt, unnoticeably causing it to dirty from his hands and face. “Relax, we were only kidding,” Nile chuckles.

“Sorry… um,” Mike trails off before shrugging. “I wasn’t trying to be mean, but it is true that you do stink.”

Erwin is about to tell them off some more in his own 13 year old way until he hears his mother call his name. He looks over and sees his and his friends’ parents come this way.

“Erwin?” His mother sounds concerned. “Who is this and why is he crying? And oh! Why is he dirtying up your shirt?” She can go from concern to angry pretty fast.

“That’s one of those underground rats!” Mike’s father announces.

Erwin’s mother glares down at the small boy as she plucks him off her son. Levi’s face, contorted with fear and stress, is covered in snot and tears as well as dirt. “Nasty,” she sniffs, shoving him away from the small group. “Shoo! Get!”

Erwin feels terribly helpless as he watches Levi get swatted at to go away. The black haired boy stares at him sadly, not even wanting to go. This boy is actually nice to him and makes Levi feel safe. Though the slap to his face is enough to make him want to flee.

Erwin watches as the boy runs back through the bushes and through the crowd of people across the dirt road to an alleyway. His mother wipes her hands on her handkerchief, a grimace on her face while she’s doing so.

“Erwin. Never ever interact with one of those dirty… _things_ ever again! You could get sick,” she tells him, stuffing the rag in her pocket as she walks back to the castle with her son.

“But mother, all he wanted to do was play with us,” he says, a defiant look in his eyes. “I don’t see what’s wrong with letting him play!”

“You’re royalty, Erwin. The prince of this kingdom. Though you’re too young to understand the importance of this now. And there you were playing with a dirty boy who’s from the underground who could carry disease. If you got sick with, God knows what goes on down there! Then we-”

Erwin tunes her out. He’s quite angry right now, even more so than with Nile and Mike. His mother even hit Levi across the face. It seemed pretty hard too. Erwin’s anger turns to worry. He hopes he’s alright. He also hopes he’ll see him again at one point. Maybe give him something to eat too, he looked pretty hungry.

For the next few weeks, Erwin would sneak and carry a couple loaves of bread with him to give to Levi if he ever sees him. But so far he hasn’t seen the small boy anywhere.

A month later just as he’s about to give up, he finally spots him. The boy is quick and lithe and is able to dash through the crowds of people. Erwin wonders why he’s running until he sees a cloth sack in his arms and guards chasing after him. The blond decides to chase after him too in a desperate attempt to speak to him again.

“Shit. He’s heading to the underground!” he hears one guard exclaim. Eventually, the guards halt to a stop as the small boy escapes to the underground. Erwin stops beside them and breathes heavily, staring at the hole in the ground. “Prince Smith. Why are you here?”

He doesn’t answer, only keeps staring at the underground entrance.

“Whatever. Let’s go, guys.”

Erwin wants to go down there and search for Levi, but he doesn’t find the confidence to even take one step into there. He sighs sadly. It’s probably no use to just wait right here for him. Or is it? No, his parents might find him and he’ll just get in trouble. He wasn’t supposed to be doing this anyways.

He’s already walking away until he hears something behind him. At first he brushes it off until the voice repeats louder. “Erwin?”

Erwin spins around, his hair swooping sideways and now in a strange style. The boy peeks up at him from the cave and laughs softly at him. “Your hair is silly,” he says, a small smile on his face.

The bigger boy looks confused at first, a hand coming up to pat at his hair, before laughter erupts from him too. “Yeah, it is!” The two boys smile at each other until Erwin perks up and reaches in his coat. “I brought something for you!” He pulls out two loaves of bread, fresh and warm, and kneels down, holding it out for Levi to take.

Levi stares at him and the food in awe. He looks as if he’s about to cry. “Thank you…” he sniffs, snatching the bread away and already stuffing his face with the food.

It’s an endearing sight, Erwin thinks, watching the small boy eat as if this is the best and only meal he’s ever had. Though the boy might be eating it all too fast, and Erwin quickly grows concern. “Ah! Levi, maybe you should slow down?!” he suggests, but Levi has already eaten it all, burping afterwards. “Excuse you.”

The thin boy giggles, coming out of the hole and wrapping his arms around Erwin, who of course returns the hug. “So, you are a prince?” he asks after a quiet moment.

Erwin nods against him. “Yeah. My mother said because of that I’m not allowed to play with you,” he says somewhat sorrowfully.

Levi huffs, curling up and pressing against his warm body. “Being a prince doesn’t sound very nice if you can’t play with certain kids,” he frowns and glances down at his body and dirty clothes. “Though I understand. Your mommy might be embarrassed to see you playing with someone like me…”

“She probably might. But I’m not embarrassed by you at all, Levi!” he assures him. “And forgive me if I’m being nosy, but what was that bag you were carrying earlier? And why were you being chased?”

Levi stiffens. “Ah. Well. Some guy told me to get some coins for him. So, I did it.”

“Did you get anything in return?”

He nods, reaching in his pants pocket and pulling out one gold coin. “I got this!” He smiles down at it, it’s so shiny. Erwin figures he probably shouldn’t tell him that one coin isn’t really a lot, but Levi seems really happy about it.

“Do you have any toys?” Erwin suddenly asks, a curious look on his face. Levi shakes his head no and Erwin widens his eyes. “Really? Your parents don’t get you toys?”

“No… I never met my daddy and these mean guys took mommy away from me..” A pained look is on his face as he recalls that memory. “I always wanted a toy though. I used to have a doll once. Also a tea set. But they both broke…”

“Maybe I can give you a few of my toys the next time I see you! I have tons!” It’s true that he does have tons. Most of them he doesn’t play with anymore, but he can always give them to Levi.

“I’d like that,” he murmurs, hurriedly wiping his eyes of more tears threatening to come out.

Erwin smiles at him before reaching in his pocket and pulling out a white rag looking thing. “I have something else to give you. It’s called a cravat and you wear it around your neck.”

Levi stares at the thing curiously before taking it from the other boy. He starts to tie it around his neck but he ends up unsure about it. “Could you help me?”

He nods. “Of course,” he says, reaching over to wrap the cravat around his neck before tying it neatly. Levi watches him intently, reaching up to stroke the soft, silky material. “How old are you anyways?”

“Eleven.”

“Woah. Two years younger than me. I thought you’d be like eight or something.” Levi only shrugs. Erwin purses his lips at him before glancing at the underground entrance. “What’s it like down there?”

“Horrible.”

“That’s what I hear…”

“It’s very horrible.”

“Do you guys take baths or anything down there? Or grow food?”

Levi shakes his head. “I’ve never taken a bath before,” he confesses. Though he wants to. He never felt what it’s like to be clean before. “And nothing grows down there..”

Erwin doesn’t really know what to say next, but suddenly he hears yelling and Levi is jumping out of his hold. Though unfortunately, he trips and falls onto his side as he tries to make it back into the underground, and because of the little mishap, he’s able to get caught by the guards.

Erwin cries out in horror as one of the guards swings the small boy over his shoulder, the boy now becoming a sobbing mess as he struggles in the strong grip. “No! Stop! He hasn’t done anything!” Erwin screams, running to the guard and pounding his fists on his legs.

Though now he’s suddenly being swung over a shoulder too. “Shut up, brat,” the guard orders him. “I’m taking you back to your parents.” Erwin screeches in horror, slamming a fist at the back of the man’s head. “Ouch!”

“Put me down! Put me down!” he chants, kicking his legs frantically. “And put him down!”

“No, kid. Your little friend is a criminal. He’s been stealing things and that’s a no-no.”

One of the guards points their gun at the small boy, a scream escaping from his throat.

“Don’t hurt him! Don’t hurt Levi!” Erwin cries, his face becoming blotchy red and tears streaming down his cheeks.

The guard with the gun cruelly laughs, but puts the gun away. “We won’t. At least not here.”

That only makes Erwin feel worse and even more distressed. He whimpers softly as he watches Levi go limp as he just gives up. They stare at each other as they’re both being taken away in separate directions.

Erwin never sees the small boy again.

**Author's Note:**

> in all honesty, i'll probably never finish this. just look at my other chapter fics.
> 
> tho if this gets good reviews, i'll probably try to force myself to finish... 
> 
> also my tumblr is dadwinsmith


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